


Too good for this world

by Limitless1



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:20:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26338654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Limitless1/pseuds/Limitless1
Summary: Isaac and Abby discuss Jerry Anderson's death, and whether Abby should seek revenge. Based on a scene that didn't make it to the final game. Official art depicting it can be found on John Sweeney's Artstaion page: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Poo203.
Kudos: 9





	Too good for this world

**Author's Note:**

> I found Sweeney's artwork while browsing Artstations and was inspired to write this. It's not the scene ND intended to make, but I think it fits the established motives and beliefs of both characters, although it might present them too bluntly. Constructive criticism of the scene or my wordcraft will be appreciated.

The shadow of the convenience store made strides since Owen dragged me to breakfast. It cut deep into the road before then, and now barely covered the sidewalk. Soon it will disappear, until the sun rises tomorrow. There was nothing more interesting to watch here, nothing more interesting to do. The rest pretended we weren’t tired of each other, but we were. You could only hear the same empty promises so many times. The WLF told us to help the lookouts, and I was doing that, in a way, although we might have been supposed to watch the other street. It didn’t matter, they promised Scars never ventured so close to the stadium. A gust of wind blew through the open window, making the curtains flutter. The cool breeze felt good against my face. 

Out in the distance, something was moving. A WLF truck. It was headed towards our outpost. Wasn’t it too early for a shift change? The shadow had long since disappeared when the last vehicle arrived. Maybe they made a mistake. The truck was close now. There were five people on it, all armed. They didn’t look like the members of the last shift, from what I remembered from our brief encounters at the food table. A different shift, most likely. Made sense they had more than two. The truck made a turn and disappeared behind a corner, on its way to the old parking lot. Hopefully, this shift will be less talkative.

There was a commotion in the building, one that didn’t fit a shift change. The voices were too loud and formal. Someone of high rank had arrived. Could this be about our recruitment? No, they said we would only begin training in a week or so. I turned to face the door, pushing a stuffed tiger off the bed. These dolls were all around the room, remnants of the kids that once lived here, and were taken into the stadium when the place was deemed too dangerous. Only the lookouts lived here now, the lookouts and us. 

People were climbing the stairs. Their voices were loud enough to understand now. 

“Should I round out all of them, or do you prefer to speak to them privately?”.

“I will speak to them privately, which would give the best account?”.

“Owen is the most talkative of the group sir, and he was the first to find the doctor’s body”.

Blood oozing from his mouth, forming a cloud-shaped stain on the floor. Blood flowing from the hole in his chest, drenching his robes. Dad. Was I supposed to tell some disinterested commander what happened, explain how one man ruined us all while he tries to hide his mockery? No. Owen will tell them, they wanted him. I was spared. 

The banging of their military boots against the concrete floor grew louder as they approached my room, and quitter as they passed it over. Someone knocked on a door. It creaked open.

“Stay outside”, said one of the visitors. 

The door closed, and the hall was quiet again. I turned back to the window. The shadow no longer covered the entire sidewalk. What were they asking Owen? Did they want dad’s records? None of us could decipher the few pages of medical jargon he left behind, not even Mel. She always told him to be more thorough, more organized, so we could continue his work if some infected jumped him. He didn’t listen. Dad never feared the infected and thought writing everything down would slow him. The decades of research he held in his mind were lost forever.

What else could the WLF want to know? Where were the other Fireflies? We had no idea. We scattered when the hope of finding a cure was lost, every man for itself. Friends and families banded in groups, but no one wanted us, the kids with no parents to watch over them. We had to stick together. The shadow moved another inch. They should go away soon, WLF commanders must have more pressing matters than us on their hands. 

A door opened, and the group walked to my room again. They were finally going away. But the sound of men descending stairs didn’t come. They’ve stopped. They wanted to talk to me. Did Owen tell them I heard dad’s and Marlene’s last conversation? Someone knocked on the door. I didn’t stand up.

“Abby, Isaac wants to talk to you”, said Grayson, one of the guys from the current shift. Isaac? That was the name of the WLF leader. Did he come here himself? 

“I’m here”, I replied.

The door opened. Behind it stood a middle-aged black man with graying hair. He wore a simple pair of jeans and a flannel shirt, but from the way the men behind him looked at him, it was clear he was no simple soldier. 

“Are you the Isaac?”, I asked.

“Yes”, he answered in a flat, gravelly voice. He entered the room and closed the door behind him. 

Isaac turned the only chair in the room to face the bed. “Can I sit here?”.

“Sure”. He sat down.

“I heard what happened from your friend Owen”, he said, “he told me you go to the scene right after him”.

“I did. I was on the other side of the hospital when it happened”.

“On patrol?”

“No, just getting some fresh air”.

“Is that something you did regularly?”.

“No”.

“So why did you do it then?”. Why did I? I could have protected him, could have… 

“Dad didn’t want me there, didn’t want me to see him. He was ashamed of what he had to do”.

“What reason did he have to be ashamed? He was doing the right thing”. That’s what he always did. It didn’t matter to that smuggler. 

“I know”. 

“The man was too good for this world”. The way Isaac said it, it didn’t sound like a compliment.

Isaac leaned forward in his chair, his hands on his knees. “Owen tells me you heard his last conversation with Marlene”.

“I did”.

Silence. Was I supposed to recount it word by word? Described dad’s pained expression as he chose humanity’s future over the girl’s life? It would be easy. No time had passed since then. 

“Dad had…”. I stopped. There were tears in my eyes. Isaac’s harsh face expressed no emotion, but his wise eyes looked directly through me. I couldn’t break down in front of him. He would remember. I turned down to the window and blinked back the tears. Better he doesn’t see my face.

“Dad told Marlene removing the mutated growth would kill the girl. He managed to convince her it had to be done and asked her not to tell the smuggler about it. She insisted. Said he had a right to know.

“And your father could have used that growth to make a cure?”.

“Yes”. That dream was gone now. 

“Do you know why Marlene felt she had to tell that smuggler? What did she expect would happen?”. There was a hint of anger in Isaac’s voice.

“She thought he would understand. Realize it was necessary”.

“She was a fool”. I turned to face Isaac. A fool? Military leaders were supposed to have respect for the fallen, not tarnish their names with a straight face. Does he treat their dead that way as well? 

“She was the only reason we found the girl in the first place”.

“She let the cure slip away from her fingers. Spent so much time with you Fireflies she forgot how the rest of them think”.

“How the rest of them think?”.

“Do you think there’s anything special about that smuggler, besides how he handles a gun?”.

“He must have been unhinged. No normal person would have done such a thing, knowing what’s at stake”.

Isaac snickered. “You don’t get it either, do you? Nine out of ten people would have done the same, in his circumstances”. There were eighty people in Salt Lake Hospital, and not one would have done what Joel did. What was he talking about?

Isaac stopped smiling. He knew I didn’t believe him. “Well, I can’t blame you for thinking that’s ridiculous, considering where you grew up in. The rest of the world doesn't think like you Fireflies, Abby. Most people are self-obsessed worms, who couldn’t imagine making a sacrifice for the greater good”. He said that with a ferocity that bore no resemblance to the measured tone he used earlier. “With them, it’s always my property, my family, my feelings. They can’t see beyond themselves, and you can’t teach them otherwise. Only beat it into them”. I stared at Isaac. His face was twisted with anger as if Joel had acted against him. Or maybe it was human nature he was angry about. How can a leader have so little faith in humanity?

Isaac straightened his back against the chair and composed himself. “What that smuggler did reminds me of something that happened here a few years ago. Hearing about it will help you understand how normal people work”. There was something fatherly in his voice now, as if he thought himself my mentor. He was not, but it was better to accept it anyway. He was the WLF’s leader, getting in his good graces would help us.

“Three years ago, the scars kidnapped one of our men when he was on patrol”, began Isaac. “He was young, no more than twenty, and his father and uncle were still on active duty. The scars demanded a vehicle full of weapons and ammunition in exchange for his life. I refused. Those weapons would have been used to slaughter dozens of us. His father and uncle decided to take matters into their own hands. They stole one of our supply trucks and traded it with the scars. The outpost it was headed to fell soon after, the soldiers guarding it couldn’t fight without their ammunition. How do you think I punished the traitors?”.

It was better to assume the best, to avoid offending him. “You threw them in prison? I heard you have one in the stadium”.

Isaac laughed. “No. I had them all hanged. The father, the uncle, and the kid as well. Our people had to understand selfishness will get them nothing but a quick death”. 

The kid was innocent. Why did he deserve to die? “Isn’t that — “.

“You think it’s monstrous?”. 

“Well – “.

“I promise you this decision saved many lives. I know your kind of thinking. That’s how the Fireflies were run. It’s why they failed”.

Failed? “The Fireflies freed many QZ’s”.

“But they never held them for long, didn’t they? I spoke to many former Fireflies, and they all told me the same thing. There was no respect for the chain of command in that organization. Soldiers didn’t obey orders and went on their own ventures. Commanders didn’t punish transgressions. It’s no wonder almost every Firefly cell dispersed after one major victory, or one major defeat. An army built on “hopes and dreams”, can’t last long.

“The Fireflies are about hope and freedom. It’s what made us strong, drew people to us. We didn’t want to become another FEDRA, as you have”. Fuck. I just insulted the most powerful army in Seattle in the presence of its leader, an army that just happened to be giving us shelter. What was I thinking? Will he throw me out?

Isaac wasn’t offended in the slightest. “It is preferable to collapsing and letting gangs and bandits take your place. When it isn’t punished, selfishness spreads from man to man like a disease. Once people see being selfish gets you ahead, they are quick to try it. And then it’s every man for himself, and nothing is off-limits. Not even sacrificing millions for a single girl”. 

“From what I heard about you and the scars, it seems cruelty and brutality tend to spread as well”. Another mistake. Why couldn’t I just say “yes” and nod? Isaac might not be so forgiving this time. 

Isaac looked at me as if I just slapped him. He was truly angry, and there was no mistaking where his anger was directed. I braced myself. “They do”.

I got lucky. Time to change the subject. “So, do you believe Joel should be punished?”.

“He murdered your father; do you really need to ask me that?”. Do you really need to remind me that? No. Stop. Don’t say that out loud. 

“Killing him won’t bring dad back”. Even though Nora and Danny behave as if it would. 

Isaac bore the disgusted expression he had when I told him dad felt guilty about killing Ellie. “You don’t think he should be punished?”. 

“He deserves to suffer, and I hope he will, but he is long gone by now. Probably left the country. He isn’t worth chasing”.

“Well, I guess he made the right choice then”. The right choice? Isaac had gone too far. 

I clenched my fist. Isaac looked amused. “What choice?”.

“Betraying the Fireflies, killing your father. It worked out well for him. You were the fools, toiling and suffering in service of humanity, giving your lives for others. He knew to look out for himself. Now he’s playing daddy with that girl while your father is deep in the dirt”. I breathed in and breathed out. What he was saying wasn’t true. Trying to save humanity was the right choice. He’s just trying to provoke me, get a reaction. He would get none.

“If that’s how you see it”.

“Oh, that’s exactly how I see it. Unless you find Joel and make him pay. Kill that girl in front of him and break him. Show him his selfishness was a mistake”. That would just be cruelty. But to ask him why he did it, make him admit he was wrong… that would mean something. 

“You try to make him sound like a coldhearted monster, but I don’t think he is. He’s weak and pathetic, maybe unhinged, but he is a person. The father you hanged wasn’t a monster either”.

“Find him and see whether he’s man or monster for yourself. I’ll keep an eye out for information about his location and tell you if anything comes up. You’re young Abby, and very naïve. After a few years here, you’ll see just how necessary justice is. I hope you’ll be strong enough to deliver it by then”. Strong enough? Was he just trying to manipulate me into dedicating myself to training? Maybe. His anger didn’t seem fake. 

“Sure”.

Isaac stood up. “Well, its time for me to go. We’ll speak again soon enough I imagine. I often go to watch the recruits train”. 

“Goodbye”. He left and closed the door behind him.

I turned to the window. The shadow was gone.


End file.
